


Always

by unwindmyself



Series: curious shapes shift in the dark [117]
Category: True Blood
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-09
Updated: 2016-01-09
Packaged: 2018-05-12 18:48:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5676703
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwindmyself/pseuds/unwindmyself
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sookie takes a trip down the aisle.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Always

**Author's Note:**

> **Original Characters** : Isi Hill, Devi Avninder, Mateo Cheng; implied to include/mentioned inclusions of the rest.

Lafayette, by virtue of being the most fashionable guest (his declaration) that’s not a vampire (Pam’s insisted-upon amendment), has been saddled with the most aesthetic role in the ceremony, which is to say that of the impromptu DJ.  Since there won’t be a reception, what this amounts to is pushing play on the “wedding march.”

Since he refused to use the actual “Here Comes the Bride” and they were working with what they collectively had on their iPods, this winds up being the Apocalyptica cover of “Wherever I May Roam,” but it’s instrumental and they figure Warlow won’t know any better.

Devi and Mateo take their places swiftly, and Eric and Nora go to stand at the makeshift altar.

Warlow comes down the aisle, frowning, and Eric whispers, “Linen pants and a button-up?  Not often the groom is the one who’s woefully underdressed.”

Nora snorts, covering her laughter with her hand.

As Warlow passes, he takes note of everyone’s thoughts.

 _And the girl becomes his bride, no matter that her friend just died_ , Isi’s thoughts sing.  Warlow only knows his name for the name-plate necklace he wears, but that makes sense, he’s a loud sort of person.  The lyrics match the song well, but they’re specific enough that he assumes they’re made up, at least in part.  Never mind that.

 _I feel high_ , the orange-dressed fairy thinks idly as she lolls against her vampire.  They seem to still be in the young love stage, in his estimation, but that might just be because they’re so young, full-stop.

 _I’m gonna kill him_ , the woman shifter thinks.  She’s been glaring at him since he set foot on the property, and it didn’t take long to sort out that she’d been promised to that other, the shifter man he murdered.  No wonder she’s so furious.  He doesn’t take any of it seriously, of course.  Why would he?

The only vampire whose expression betrays any feeling is the pretty, fierce-looking dark-skinned girl, who’s eyeing him with above-average wariness, stroking her fairy pet’s shoulder protectively.  She looks - not angry, exactly, but like she’s daring him to do something.  He can’t tell anymore, truly; centuries and millenniums of mind-reading have rather ruined his intuition.

“He knows you’re pissed,” Danika whispers to Tara.  “He doesn’t know why, but he has a feeling.”

“Good,” Tara mutters.  “I am.”

“You sure about this?” Jason asks again.

“I’m sure,” Sookie says.

They step off the front porch and Sookie takes a deep breath suddenly, feeling the irony of the situation wash over her.  She would be lying if she said there wasn’t a time she imagined a nighttime, candlelit wedding at the Compton place.  It was years ago, years that feel like entire lifetimes, but she’s not gonna deny it to herself.  This “wedding” isn’t the one she imagined, but it still feels like a turning point.

Her brother, her last living human family, is on her arm: smiling nervously, trying not to fidget (more from the suit jacket than the lack of a shirt underneath), acting like as much of a tough guy as he can.

Her so-called bridesmaid is not as previously expected, her best friend in the world, but instead a feisty med student that she wouldn’t have known to imagine a few years ago.  Devi will never be Tara, but she’s already important, so important, in her own way.

Said best friend is, rather unlike in Sookie’s long-ago imagination, sitting in the second row on the left side, calculatedly avoiding her actual partner (her vampire Maker/girlfriend, which is also not what Sookie had predicted) in favor of cuddling her fake fairy-baby toy-pet-thing.

And said fairy-baby and her sisters are another thing Sookie wouldn’t have imagine.  Hell, the Sookie who dreamed of getting married on the front lawn of Bill Compton’s plantation house didn’t even have a notion of fairies beyond Disney cartoons.  But they’re a part of her now.  Like it or not, she’s some fractional piece mystical being with laser hands and telepathy and access to magical special dimensions.  And her parents may be gone, her gran may be gone, but Jason’s still here and so are her legions of fairy godfamily and so are her newborn teenage adopted cousins (her adorable ridiculous newborn teenage adopted cousins with their still-forming personalities and their glitter and froth and surprising intuition) and she has her other friends too and it’s a lot more than she thought she had.

Then, waiting for her at the altar beside the man she’s supposed to marry are two of the most confusing people-things she’s ever met.  Mysterious, murderous, elegant, brilliant, quite possibly insane Nora, who’s bonded till true death to her brother that’s not; said brother, Eric of the cocky smile, the physicality that Sookie still dreams about from time to time and the soul that Sookie loves but not in a way that means _they_ should be bonded.  Both vampires would kill for her, Sookie realizes, and they would probably both die for her, for their reasons.  It’s a heady thought.

Jason deposits her at the altar and goes to stand beside Devi (another advantage of her friendship: a self-professed gay-ace girl is categorically off-limits to Jason and he knows it, which lends their friendship something complicated).  No turning back.

“We come together this night to consecrate the union of Macklyn Warlow, prince of the fae and progeny of the blessed Lilith,” Nora begins  Warlow showed no signs of knowing transpired with his Maker’s remains and their extended social group beyond acknowledging that the Chancellors of the Authority were custodies of the aforementioned remains, so they all agreed that it was best not to disabuse him of that notion and continue on as piously as possible.  “And Susanna Katherine Stackhouse, daughter of Corbett and Michelle.  Who stands with the groom?”

“As a Chancellor of the Authority, guardians of his sacred Maker’s legacy, I, Mateo Cheng, stand with the groom,” announces Mateo, holding his head high like he’s done this a thousand times.

“And who stands with the bride?” Eric asks, catching Sookie’s eye over Warlow’s shoulder and mouthing _I stand with you_ as a reassurance of sorts.

“As her closest living kin, I, Jason Stackhouse, stand with the bride," says Jason, glad of the fact that being the bride’s brother is ample enough cause for nerves that he won’t give the game away.

Eric and Nora nod at each other; in the crowd, Adilyn and Danika flash each other thumbs-ups.

“Then we shall begin,” Eric says.  “Chancellor Gainesborough?”  The siblings’ relationship is another undisclosed aspect of the situation; they’ve even managed to avoid being overly demonstrative in front of Warlow.

“Yes,” Nora says, and she launches into the verbose wedding spiel they crafted.

And for a while, it’s business as usual.  The fairy girls start to grow restless, shifting in their seats, Luna and Nicole and Lafayette and everyone frown increasingly much, until, during Nora's incredibly long-winded lead-up to the actual vows, Warlow growls.

“Enough,” he shouts, and he shoves Nora down without so much as a glance.  “I don’t _care_ about the entire history of the marriage rites practiced by humans.”

Of course, this makes Eric hiss, but he lets himself be pushed aside as well, shifting himself and his sister toward an impromptu topiary in which hides a cache of weapons.

“Fairy,” Warlow calls, turning to lock eyes with Braelyn as the majority of the crowd bursts into uneasy, quiet chaos.  “You _will_ join me.”  He makes eye contact with the other three Bellefleur girls in turn, and they rise from their seats and go to stand behind him, Adilyn-Charlaine-Danika-Braelyn.

“Two of you will hold Susanna Katherine,” Warlow instructs, “and the other two will take hold of the weapons I know you’re carrying.  You will execute anyone who tries to interfere with this.”

“You can’t do this!” Nicole shouts, angry and aghast.

“Nic, please,” Antoine murmurs, sounding fearful.

“It’s not worth it to kill her,” Warlow scoffs.  “Not now.  Not when I stand so close to my bride.”

Sookie looks horrified.  “How could I ever deign to be your bride after this?”

Warlow sighs, locking eyes with Sookie.  "You long to be my bride,” he says calmly.  “You’ve always longed to be my bride, to be taken away by your prince.”  He steps closer to her, wraps arms around her.

“I have,” Sookie repeats dreamily, staring up at him.

“And I will have what’s mine,” Warlow murmurs, leaning in to kiss her neck.

What he doesn’t count on is the fact that he’s been too wrapped up in his precious Susanna Katherine to notice her brother and bridesmaid pulling guns out of the hidden places in their formalwear and aiming at respectively his forehead and his foot, and before he knows it he's fallen to the ground, shouting in agony.

“Do something!” he shouts at the Bellefleurs, “stand for your own kind, don’t stand with these abominations!”

Adilyn cocks a gun at Warlow, and he turns to see the girls all have weapons aimed at him: Charlaine a crossbow, Danika what appears to be an industrial-sized taser, Braelyn lengths of silver chain.  “You fuckin’ idiot,” Adilyn says, smirking.  “You _are_ a fairy, you oughta know by now you can’t fuckin’ glamour us.”

“Now!” Nora shouts, and everyone in the wedding party retrieves their own weapons to aim in Warlow’s direction (mostly guns, all considered, though Willa and Tara also have silver-tipped stakes).  Eric lunges to pin Warlow’s arms to the ground, knocking him on his back, and Sookie pulls the knife out from under her gown.

“As if I, or anyone, could be told to love someone,” she murmurs, climbing to straddle Warlow.  Pam and Jessica speed over to hold his legs down; Nora concerns herself with getting the fairy girls safely onto the front porch, Evelyn and Mateo and Amber take responsibility for the other humans.  “As if a monster like you could just walk up and demand I love you.”  Warlow is fighting by this point, but to no avail, and Sookie stabs her knife into his throat.  “As if I wouldn’t fight back.”

“Here, Sook,” Tara murmurs, tossing Sookie one of her stakes.

And Sookie smiles.  “Thanks,” she says, and she stakes Warlow through the heart.


End file.
